1949 UPU French Colonies Imperforates

16/01/2013 General

The 75th Anniversary of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1949 produced an enormous amount of stamps with almost all of the then countries of the world participating. While the British Colonies probably produced the largest number of omnibus issues, there was also a significant amount from the French Colonies, with an omnibus set of 12 stamps.

The design for these Air Post issues was by Raoul Serres, typical of those in use by stamp producing countries during the 1930's to 1950's, featuring "People of Five Races”, an Aircraft, and a globe, representing air postal systems throughout the French Empire, with the stamps being printed at the Imperial printing works in Paris.

Single stamps in various values were issued for Cameroun, French Equatorial Africa, French West Africa, French Somali Coast, and Togo in continental Africa, Madagascar, off the eastern coast of Africa, French Indian Settlements and Indo-China in Asia, French Oceanic Settlements, New Caledonia, and Wallis & Futuna in the Pacific, as well as Saint Pierre & Miquelon, in North America, off the coast of Canada.

All the peoples in the stamp design are wearing native headdresses, and includes a Vietnamese Girl, a Polynesian Girl and an African Warrior, as well as peoples from North Africa, and Latin America. The aircraft is a Lockheed Constellation, a hugely successful four-engined propeller aircraft, with over 800 being built between 1943 and 1958, and with approximately 30 of these aircraft preserved or still flying.

The imperforate stamps of these issues are rare, and are offered here as a complete set of twelve in vertical pairs.